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Last week's Movie Quiz winners

Last week's quiz movie in question was the 1945 American version of Agatha Christie's classic who-done-it, And Then There Were None, adapted by veteran screenwriter Dudley Nichols (The Informer, Stagecoach) and directed by the great French director Rene Clair. It's a near-perfect old-fashioned mystery film filled with genuine surprises, and a rare one that continues to entertain with repeated viewings, even after you know all the answers.

It's hard to believe anyone doesn't know the basic, well-known story, based on the song "Ten Little Indians": ten strangers are taken to a mansion at the top of a remote island, only to find that their unknown host plans to kill them, one by one, as punishment for murders they'd committed in their pasts. Every time one of them dies, a set of ten figurines in the dining table loses another piece. (If you want more, there's a decent synopsis at Wikipedia, complete with song lyrics.)

There have been several film versions of the book and play, including a 1949 British TV production under the book's original British title, but this was the first, and there's a freshness to it that makes it the best. Clair's direction is surprisingly modern, telling much of the story with a constantly moving camera. (The "keyhole sequence," where each character is caught spying on another, is a delightful example.) It also has a fine ensemble cast of character actors of the era, and watching them work together-- or, more accurately, against one another-- is one of the great pleasures of the film.

All in all, with the possible exception of Witness for the Prosecution, there's never been a better film version of one of Dame Agatha's works.

It was a tougher quiz this week, so congratulations and a game of billiards with Mr. U.N. Owen to the following winners: Wayne Palmer, Peter Schilling, Dennis Lynch, mick, Mike Kelly, E. Yarber, Bill Hearne, Justin Cullen-Benson, Robert Redwing, Song-Un Lee, Dack Anderson, and Sarah Bergstrom. And suspenseful, special congrats to Mike Knox, who gets this week's grand prize: Nine Inch Nails' "Year Zero" and Art Garfunkel's "Some Enchanted Evening." As prize guru Corey Anderson said, your potential for disappointment will be doubled, Mike!

P.S. In case you've never seen And Then There Were None, a 17-year-old Youtube user is uploading it in 10 minute chunks, once a day. Since the movie is a little under 100 minutes, it will be complete in-- you guessed it-- ten days!

Posted by Steve Monaco at June 24, 2007 10:33 PM

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